Scotch Eggs

Megan from MM Livestock showed us this little trick. We have been working on it for three weeks now and made it into a work of art. These things are WONDERFUL; so far everyone who has tried one says “Oh My Gosh, these are great!!!” And being the Chef those words are music to my ears.

A Scotch Egg is a hardboiled egg, wrapped with a quarter pound of sausage, then wrapped with a strip of thick cut bacon and put onto a stick. These are perfect for your Tailgating and Super Bowl parties or just a weekend get together. The fun part is that you don’t have to use only one kind of sausage. We make them using all kinds of sausage from smokin’ hot to mild and not just pork sausage. We’ve also made them with well seasoned ground lamb!

I think besides the “off the hook” flavor, it’s the texture that you experience as you eat this that makes them so good. First you see it, looks like something good to eat. You smell it, yup. Then, you taste that first bite of bacon, then the layer of sausage followed by the soft creamy egg. Oh my, these were really so good.

Keep in mind that when we make these we are doing 20 or more at a time. The following recipe will be for 8, using two pounds of sausage.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes smoke, 30-40 minutes cook @ 350

Grill: Royall 3000 Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Pellets: Hickory

Eggs, Sausage and Bacon

Ingredients:

8 hardboiled eggs, peeled

2 lbs. sausage of your choice (I like a hot breakfast sausage, Patti loves ground lamb)

8 strips of thick sliced bacon (We like peppered bacon)

8 Popsicle sticks, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Directions:

Boil and peel your eggs and set them aside. Divide your sausage into ¼ pound balls and flatten out. I find that if you flatten out the sausage it goes around the egg a little easier. Have a bowl of water so you can dip your hands in it to just moisten. When you are forming your sausage balls the meat won’t stick to your hands if they are damp.

Press the sausage around the egg making it as tight as you can without crushing the egg. Wrap it with a strip of bacon. You don’t need anything to hold the bacon, it will stick by itself. Now, take your Popsicle stick and push it into the meatball and firmly into the egg. You are ready for the grill. I like to smoke these 30 minutes before I turn the heat up to 350 for 30-40 minutes. You can skip the 30 minute smoke if need be. But, it will add another layer of flavor.

Sausage Meats Egg

Insert Stick Firmly into the Egg

Cooking Directions: Royall Wood Pellet Grill

Open the lid and set the dial to “Smoke”, turn it on. After about five minutes you can shut the lid. Give it about 10 minutes to heat up. Patti has lined the drip pan with foil for me, it makes for easier clean up.

Place your Scotch Eggs directly onto the grill and just let it hang out in the smoke and get happy for 30 minutes or so. This is referred to as “smoking”; the temperature is around 165-180 degrees. 30 minutes of smoking is not enough to have any cooking effect on your meat but it is enough to open the pores up so that the meat can pick up all the flavor of the smoke

After 30 minutes, turn the digital control up to 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. You are looking for an internal temputure of 160 degrees for USDA guidelines.

Primal Lollipops

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees, anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.

Let’s Eat

Directions: Gas Grill

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes smoke, 34-40 minutes cook @ 350

Grill: Indirect Medium Heat

Preparing Grill: Medium Indirect Heat

Preheat your grill to medium heat (350) and turn off one side so you will be cooking with indirect heat. Add your wet hickory chips over the fire and oil the grill. A cooking spray is easiest for this. (Note: you can add your hickory directly to the grill or you can use foil smoke packets.(Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.)

Preparing Charcoal Grill

Get the Grill ready, you will want your temperature of around 400-500 degrees. Remember, you are going medium heat here for about 30 to 40 minutes. Bank your coals over to one side of your grill. Add your “drained wood chips” and you are good to go… Your cooking times and temps will be the same as above.

Cooking In the Oven:

We have been getting requests for recipe conversions for the oven. I tell folks all the time that cooking on a Royall wood pellet grill is just as easy as cooking in your oven. Just about anyone can do it and do it well. Think about it. You set your control knob to the temp you want, put your meat in and leave it for a set time.

It is the same thing, time and temperature is what it is all about. The Royall is just like your oven except it uses wood pellets and has wheels.

If you want to smoke in your oven they sell oven smokers for that. I, myself, would not spend the money on one of those when you can make your own out of foil.

Foil smoke packets. (Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.) Just set it in the oven. You might want to make sure you turn on your vent fan or your house will fill up with smoke. You will give your alarms a good work out.

Lookin’ Good

 
Let's Eat!!!

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker, Traeger, Char Griller side box smoker, Charmglow, Char-Broil, The Big Easy, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles are healthy and low fat and will fit pellet heads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.

Take it and run with it….

Live your Passion,

Ken & Patti

http://datenightdoins.com

Our Sausage and Bacon was Provided By:

MM Livestock Co.

Grass Fed Beef and Lamb

Pastured Pork & Poultry

Megan McDowell 951 805 7341

builttoslide@msn.com    http://www.california.beef.com